Lawyer Will Go To Rehab Center

July 7, 2000|By PAULA McMAHON Staff Writer and Staff Writer John Holland contributed to this report.

Well-known Broward attorney Robert Ullman will go into a substance abuse rehab center before being sentenced on a federal charge of using a phone to set up a drug deal with a former client.

Ullman, 46, is to enter the COPAC center in Brandon, Miss., for at least 90 days on the recommendation of Florida Lawyers Assistance Inc., a program that helps attorneys with substance abuse or mental health problems, according to federal court documents.

Ullman accepted a plea agreement from federal prosecutors last month that could get him a sentence of probation after rehab.

The charge relates to an April 1995 incident when Ullman called a former client, Vernon Howard Jr., and asked him to drop off a small amount of cocaine at his Andrews Avenue law practice.

Federal law enforcement agents later recorded a conversation Ullman had with Howard at the federal detention center in Miami.

Ullman began withdrawing from cases earlier this year after he learned he was being investigated. He abruptly closed his law practice.

The Broward State Attorney's Office was concerned that Ullman's legal problems could bring a slew of claims from former clients trying to get convictions overturned on appeal because of allegations about his drug use.

But Joel Silvershein, a prosecutor in the appellate section, said there have been just two such appeals in the last several months. Prosecutors won one appeal and conceded that a lesser sentence was appropriate in the other.

Last month, Ullman testified on behalf of Broward prosecutors against former client Dwight Larman, who wanted to withdraw his guilty plea in a 1993 attempted murder case. Larman, who claimed that Ullman did not give him effective legal representation, is scheduled for release in 2007.

Earlier this year, a Broward judge reduced another former Ullman client's sentence from life to 25 years because of allegations that Ullman had not warned the client about the severity of the sentence he faced when he rejected a plea agreement offer of 12 years.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Ullman could get six to 12 months in prison, but the judge can give a lesser sentence.Ullman's attorney, David Bogenschutz, said he will present evidence of mitigation and hopes that Ullman will get probation. Ullman is also facing state charges of misdemeanor driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 16. Police say he sideswiped a vehicle. A drug possession charge was dropped when Ullman was able to prove the medication was prescribed.

The Florida Bar, which investigates attorney misconduct, is also examining Ullman's behavior.

Staff Writer John Holland contributed to this report.

Paula McMahon can be reached at pmcmahon@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4533.